THE Newcastle Knights are in danger of suffering a third straight humiliation on home turf unless they can stage a spectacular form reversal against Melbourne Storm at McDonald Jones Stadium on Sunday.
The Knights were left reeling after slumping to their fifth consecutive defeat, a 39-2 hammering from Parramatta on Sunday in front of a 25,169-strong crowd - their biggest home attendance in almost three years.
Their previous home game, against Manly 17 days earlier, resulted in a 30-6 blowout, which means the Knights have now been beaten by a collective tally of 69-8 in their past two outings in their own backyard.
They haven't lost three successive home games since 2019, the last season of Nathan Brown's coaching tenure.
In that season they lost six of 12 home games, but none by more than eight points.
Not since the dark days of 2016, when Newcastle were at their lowest ebb and delivered only one win all season, have they lost two home games in a row by such a large margin.
Adding to the challenge Brown's successor, Adam O'Brien, faces this weekend, Newcastle have lost 10 straight against Melbourne by a combined scoreline of 324-114, or 32-11 on average.
Of the 17 Newcastle players who took the field against Parramatta, 11 of them have never played in a winning team against the Storm.
Somehow, between now and Sunday, O'Brien needs to instill in his troops the self-belief they will require to have any hope against their long-time nemesis.
"I'd like to think that we don't lack motivation ... we don't want to repeat that performance," a chastened O'Brien said on Sunday.
"I know there's enough care in us to not want to do that do those 25,000 - our whole region.
"It's hard to look anybody in the eye at the moment, but we'll pick ourselves up tomorrow, stay together and find a way.
"That's what we've got to do, find a way. There's no other way around it."
An elbow injury that appears set to sideline young back-rower Brodie Jones won't help Newcastle's cause.
The Knights are already without senior back-rowers Mitch Barnett (suspension) and Lachlan Fitzgibbon (knee), as well as Jirah Momoisea (elbow).
Jack Johns is yet to play in 2022 after off-season shoulder surgery but is reportedly close to returning.
"We don't have a lot of depth there, especially around the back-row stocks," O'Brien said.
"I think Brodie will miss next week. He's got a hyper-extended elbow, so we're running real low on back-rowers at the moment."
As well as the back-row shortage, hooker Jayden Brailey (Achilles), winger Dom Young (knee) and rookie prop Mat Croker (broken jaw) are also unavailable.
In addition, experienced winger Hymel Hunt suffered a suspected fractured eye socket in his NSW Cup comeback on Sunday.
O'Brien, however, refused to offer injuries as an excuse, possibly because Parramatta had seven of their own first-graders out of action, including wingers Maika Sivo and Hayze Dunster and centres Waqa Blake and Tom Opacic.
"It makes it hard to put a bit of selection pressure on the team," O'Brien said of his limited options.
"But the injury toll, that's no excuse, no bearing on some of those efforts out there today.
"Last week I spoke about referees too much.
"I'm not going to talk about the injury toll.
"The guys that were out there - and I'm in this too - we need a much better performance than that, regardless of injury."
